Tracy returns to Phillies as minor league manager

Cubs tell Sandberg he's not a candidate

The next Cubs manager must have "major league managing or coaching experience."

Lehigh Valley IronPigs manager Ryan Sandberg will not be a candidate for… (DONNA FISHER, THE MORNING…)

November 02, 2011|By Jeff Schuler, Of The Morning Call

As the Ryne Sandberg saga took a somewhat surprising turn on Wednesday when new Chicago Cubs general manager Theo Epstein said the IronPigs manager wasn't a candidate to become that team's next manager, the Phillies have filled their one — for the moment — minor league managerial vacancy.

Former IronPigs favorite Andy Tracy is returning to the organization after a one-year absence as a minor league manager following his retirement as a player.

Mark Parent, who led Reading to the Eastern League playoffs last summer, joined new Chicago White Sox manager Robin Ventura's staff as a bench coach.

Tracy has not been told where he will manage in 2012. The Phillies will announce their minor league staff assignments at a future date.

"I'm going to be 38, and while I had another good year [at Triple-A Reno], it's time to get to the next aspect of my life," said Tracy, who spent three of his 16 pro seasons with the IronPigs and played 13 of his 149 major-league games in a Phillies uniform.

Injuries limited Tracy to just 85 games last summer but he still hit .288 with 18 homers and 51 RBIs to help Arizona's affiliate reach the Pacific Coast League playoffs. He had played 378 games over the previous three seasons with the IronPigs, batting .272 with 69 homers and 261 RBIs, but also impressed the Phillies staff his clubhouse leadership.

General manager Ruben Amaro Jr. told The Morning Call on Wednesday he wanted to bring Tracy back to the organization because of the "level of professionalism he showed through the years with us, the way he competed, his knowledge of the game. He's a very well respected guy, [a] very knowledgeable baseball guy. He has a good idea of what our organization is all about."

Tracy said he also talked to Arizona, Cleveland and the New York Mets about beginning his coaching career, and said the Diamondbacks offered him a position as a minor league hitting coach. The Phillies, he said, agreed to his desire to begin his post-playing career as a manager.

"I'm going to be learning on the job, and I'm going to do some things wrong," said Tracy, who ends his career with 296 minor league home runs.

"I think he's going to be great," former teammate Brian Bocock said. "He was born to be a manager."

Meanwhile, in a statement Wednesday announcing that Mike Quade was out after one year as Cubs manager, Epstein said the team's next manager "must have managerial or coaching experience at the major league level."

Sandberg, who has never managed or coached in the major leagues, told the Chicago Sun-Times that he received a phone call from Epstein soon after the announcement was released to tell him personally he would not be a candidate.

"That was classy of him," Sandberg, who was bypassed for the job last year when Quade was hired, told the paper, adding that he also told Epstein "the Cubs were in good hands with him."

Ironically, the Cubs' biggest rival, the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals, are the first team to receive permission from the Phillies to talk to Sandberg. Cardinals manager Tony La Russa retired on Monday, three days after winning his third World Series.

Sandberg is also believed to be a candidate for the vacancy in Boston, which interviewed Phillies bench coach Pete Mackanin for the job that opened up when the Red Sox and Terry Francona parted ways following the team's September collapse. If the Red Sox would decide to go with Mackanin, the door could be opened for Sandberg to be added to Charlie Manuel's major league staff — if he's still around.